The Evolution of Avunculocal Chiefdoms: A Reconstruction of Taino Kinship and Politics

Studies of prehistoric settlement patterns emphasize resource distributions, production, exchange, and political relations as the determining factors of settlement locations. Settlement patterns are also influenced by social organization. The present study examines the interrelationship of social organization, specifically matrilocal/avunculocal residence and matrilineal descent, and the Lucayan Taino settlement of the Bahama archipelago (ca. A.D. 800–1500). The study involves an archeo-ethnological collaboration in which archeological questions of Taino kinship and politics and ethnological questions concerning the evolution of avunculocal chiefdoms are addressed. The results include a remarkably complete reconstruction of Taino social organization and a diachronic test of the evolutionary sequence proposed for the development of avunculocal institutions.